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Approval of Jackdaw and Rosebank fields would reduce reliance on volatile imports, claims think tank

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2026/04/10/blair-urges-miliband-open-north-sea-to-combat-energy-costs/

Sir Tony Blair has called on Ed Miliband to urgently ramp up drilling in the North Sea to combat rising energy costs caused by the Iran war.

In a damning intervention likely to increase pressure on the Energy Secretary, the former prime minister’s think tank said the Government should immediately approve the Jackdaw and Rosebank oil and gas fields.

The Tony Blair Institute (TBI) said this would not only reduce reliance on volatile imports but also boost the UK’s energy security.

Tone Langengen, an energy policy expert at the TBI, said the oil and gas crisis caused by the conflict in the Middle East and the resulting closure of the Strait of Hormuz only made the argument stronger for approving new drilling in the North Sea.

“Iran hasn’t just been an energy shock – it’s been a cost-of-living shock and a test of Britain’s economic resilience,” she said.

“But the case for strengthening domestic supply and backing projects like Jackdaw and Rosebank was already strong – the crisis has simply exposed how vulnerable the UK remains without it.”

She warned that the UK’s energy security would remain vulnerable to price shocks if Mr Miliband refuses to reopen the North Sea and continues to forge ahead with renewables.

“If the Government doubles down on the wrong parts of the system, the UK will remain exposed to the same vulnerabilities,” Ms Langengen added.

“But this is also an opportunity to reset – including by accelerating domestic supply to reduce reliance on volatile imports and support UK jobs and tax revenues.” Mr Miliband has so far held firm on his North Sea crackdown, insisting that more drilling will not reduce bills or provide substantial amounts of new energy.............

In the long term, “the UK must move from a strategy focused primarily on clean power supply to one centred on cheap power, electrification and economic growth”, the TBI added.

The think tank said Labour’s current net zero policy is flawed as it fails to reduce the UK’s reliance on fossil fuels, even as it undermines growth and makes the country reliant on vulnerable global supply chains. “As long as demand remains, reducing domestic production [of oil and gas] does not reduce reliance on fossil fuels – it increases reliance on imports,” it said.

“In a context of sustained geopolitical disruption and tightening global supply, this not only exposes the UK to greater price volatility and security risks, it also weakens the UK’s trade balance

I am sure all of you will know what the reaction of the Government spokesperson is :-)

(continued)

We will focus on prioritising affordability and energy security over this government’s perverse interpretation of sustainability. It is not environmentally sustainable to close down UK oil and gas production and instead rely on more carbon intensive imports. The same logic also applies to our food and manufacturing sector.

We will rebuild the UK’s sovereign capability across fuel, food and manufacturing. Our gas supply plan will ensure we maximise the production of gas from the UK, not rely on LNG shipped in from the US, Qatar and elsewhere.

We must also significantly increase our gas storage capacity to give us extra security and reduce vulnerability to external events.

Domestic energy supply really matters, and the costs of energy impact all aspects of the economy. Three quarters of UK energy demand is oil and gas, so Reform will be focused on securing as much of that demand from home supplies as possible. Doing so will ensure well-paid and skilled jobs stay in this country, improve energy security, lower lifecycle emissions and improve balance of payments.

There is no excuse for continued dithering and delay on Jackdaw and Rosebank. Both of these projects should be approved immediately.

For every one million barrels of oil produced in the UK, £100m is added to the UK economy, according to experts at Wood Mackenzie. We have billions of barrels of oil and gas left under the North Sea, and we should be using it. It is our patriotic duty to do so.

The Tories are now saying they back the UK oil and gas sector. Let me remind you, these are the same Tories who introduced the windfall tax, and then raised and extended it and the same Tories who introduced more carbon taxes and net zero. Never forgive, never forget what they did.

Look at our UK refineries. In 2000 we had 12 and now we have four. Today, the UK gets 60pc of its jet fuel from the Middle East and some airlines have said that there are risks of supply disruption if the conflict continues.

Through policy and regulation the UK has decimated its ability to manufacture the products we heavily rely on. Under a Reform government, industry would not face carbon pricing and it will be a strategic priority for our government to reindustrialise our country.

These Reform plans will increase the domestic supply of oil and gas, help businesses with lower costs and bring down domestic energy bills. The US has gas prices that are more than 75pc lower than the UK because they produce and consume domestically. We can do the same. This is a win-win for the UK.

The UK is broken, but not irreparably. The conditions for success are there, and Reform UK is completely focused on delivering for families, communities and our country.

North Sea oil and gas drilling is our patriotic duty

The UK is broken, but not irreparable if we take back our resources from Ed Miliband

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2026/04/09/north-sea-oil-and-gas-drilling-is-our-patriotic-duty/

There are 280 oil and gas fields in the UK North Sea today, producing around 50pc of our needs. By 2030, forecasts suggest there will only be around 100 fields left in operation and our gas import dependency will be 70pc.

This is a perilous state of affairs for our energy security, economic opportunity and for communities in Scotland and across the UK. It is a position that both the Conservative Party and Labour Party bear responsibility for.

Each of these fields have platforms operated by hundreds of well-paid and highly skilled workers who provide energy for the country. They work long hours in an exceptionally inhospitable environment and are often away from their families for weeks at a time.

The workers of these mini towns in the middle of the North Sea should be championed, not chastised. Reform UK will champion them.

The UK’s energy policy of the last 25 years has been exceptionally poor. We have moved from being self-sufficient in energy to being a massive energy importer, whilst the percentage share of oil and gas in our energy mix hasn’t changed at all.

Mad Ed Miliband is doing all he can to stop oil and gas production and focus on intermittent renewables instead. He does so to achieve Clean Power 2030, which won’t be met of course, but it seems to ignore the fact that over 75pc of UK energy demand is outside of the electricity sector.

Where will the gas come from that heats 85pc of UK homes? Where will the oil products come from that provide 96pc of transport energy demand?

Miliband and his Government say they are showing “climate leadership”, while Norway has plans to drill 250 exploration wells over the next 10 years.

This Government is also maintaining the position that their energy policy will reduce bills, despite leading energy suppliers telling Miliband that his policies will increase bills even if wholesale electricity prices fall.

The costs of intermittency associated with wind and solar power are being lumped onto household and industrial bill payers and it simply is not acceptable. The chief executive of M&S has rightly criticised the Government for driving up energy bills through policy costs.

This week I have been visiting business leaders in Scotland ahead of the crucial May elections. At the Port of Aberdeen, more than 60pc of its revenue comes from the oil and gas sector, compared to 1pc from wind. The impacts of this government’s oil and gas policies are not just on the workers directly in the sector, but also on the supply chain around the country.

Reform UK’s energy policy will be as follows; we will scrap net zero and ditch all the related carbon taxes and levies, bin the emissions trading scheme and end the energy profits levy.

(continued)

Reeves met North Sea operators in 11 Downing Street on March 4, shortly after the Iran war began. Companies proposed £10 billion of projects to be implemented if the windfall tax would dropped.

The meeting followed talks with Douglas Alexander, the Scottish secretary, and Lord Livermore, financial secretary to the Treasury.

Under the EPL, which was brought in by the Conservatives under Boris Johnson after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine led to a spike in energy prices, oil and gas firms face a 78 per cent tax on UK profits. It is due to be brought to an end in April 2030.

Oil and gas companies are understood to have since identified a further £7.5 billion of investment, in addition to the original £10 billion, if the tax change were brought forward.

The new system, coupled with speeding up the regulatory approval process holding up the Jackdaw gas and Rosebank oil fields, could deliver the equivalent of 1.1 billion barrels of oil and gas by 2030, the industry body Offshore Energies UK (OEUK) said.

Ben Ward, market intelligence manager at OEUK, said: “Careful management of domestic oil and gas production can help the UK avoid overreliance on oil and gas imports and maintain UK energy security, with all the additional benefits through taxes paid, job supported and control over emissions.”

Linda Cook, chief executive of Harbour Energy, recently claimed her company and others had warned the chancellor that a failure to reform the windfall tax meant investments were staying “on the shelf”.

The industry is concerned that if it pushes ahead with the investment plans and the Iran conflict eases it will be left out of pocket by the impact of the windfall tax.

A senior industry figure who attended the March 4 meeting said companies had previously been “left very encouraged” by discussions about “a more workable, permanent windfall tax”.

They said their impression remained that the chancellor was “on our side” and was “hopeful that she’s winning the argument” within government.

Reeves is in line for an £8 billion-a-year boost as rising energy prices increase taxes raised from VAT on petrol and the profits of oil and gas firms. However, government sources have said additional revenue could be more than offset by increases in the cost of government borrowing, which have also risen sharply as a result of the conflict.

The Times revealed last week that Ed Miliband is expected to give the green light to Jackdaw, the first major North Sea oil and gas field project in almost ten years. The site, which is 150 miles off Aberdeen, could produce the equivalent of 6 per cent of the UK’s future gas supply.

He is said to still be opposed to Rosebank field, which predominantly contains oil reserves.

An industry source said abandoning plans to scrap a windfall tax on oil and gas companies would amount to ‘economic illiteracy on steroids’

https://www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/article/rachel-reeves-accused-of-blocking-175bn-north-sea-investment-qjlr066k5

Rachel Reeves has been accused of blocking £17.5 billion of investment in the North Sea after she shelved plans to scrap a windfall tax on oil and gas following the airstrikes on Iran.

Oil and gas companies have identified projects in the North Sea which could deliver the equivalent of more than a billion barrels of oil and gas by the end of the decade.

They told the chancellor early last month that they were prepared to push ahead with the projects if the government brought forward plans to scrap the windfall tax, due to come to an end in 2030.

Reeves was supportive of the plans at the time as she sought to bolster Britain’s economic growth. However, she then dropped them after oil and gas prices soared because of the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz.

A government source said oil and gas companies were likely to make “significant” profits because of the conflict at a time when the public finances are under mounting pressure. “Iran totally changed the dynamics,” they said.

One industry figure described delaying the switch from the current energy profits levy (EPL) to an oil and gas price mechanism (OGPM), which would only apply when prices go above a certain level, as “economic illiteracy on steroids”.

Sources in the energy sector maintain that without the tax overhaul it would remain unviable to push ahead with a multibillion-pound investment programme, which would deliver substantial windfalls for the Treasury and secure thousands of jobs.

“Oil and gas companies have had their North Sea profits all but wiped out by a punitive energy profits levy that has made the UK virtually uninvestible,” a source said.

“That remains the case under the current price of oil and gas and the government is wrong to conflate much larger global profits with meagre returns in the North Sea.

“It would be economic illiteracy on steroids if the government were to choose not to seize a £17 billion investment opportunity by 2030, which is predicated on an early move from EPL to OGPM.

“Every £1 invested by the oil and gas sector generates around twice that amount in GVA [gross value added] — so the government would effectively be turning down over £30 billion in additional value to the UK economy.”

Both Reform UK and the Conservatives have pledged to lift the ban on new oil and gas exploration licenses in the North Sea. Nigel Farage, the Reform leader, has said he would increase oil and gas production in the North Sea by 50 per cent by scrapping the windfall tax and giving companies further tax breaks to incentivise them to look for new fields.

Analysis comparing British resources with cost of imports will pile pressure on Ed Miliband to reverse drilling ban

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2026/04/07/cheap-north-sea-gas-saves-britain-billions-of-pounds-a-year/

North Sea natural gas has been found to have saved Britain billions last year, increasing pressure on the Government to boost production during the Iran war.

Tapping into its own resources of offshore gas instead of paying for imported liquefied natural gas (LNG) shipments saved the UK about £2.5bn last year, according to analysis from investment bank Stifel.

The bank said savings on UK-produced gas would be “substantially higher” this year because prices have surged during the Middle East conflict.

Stifel’s analysis will pile further pressure on Ed Miliband, who has banned new exploration in British waters and has so far rejected calls to extract more fossil fuels from the North Sea because of his net zero push.

The Energy Secretary has claimed that awarding new licences for North Sea drilling would do little to lower prices.

However, Chris Wheaton, an analyst at Stifel, said it was astonishing that ministers were not ramping up production of North Sea gas, asking: “Doesn’t the Government realise there’s a war on?”

“Unsurprisingly – and we are frankly astonished that this has to be stated – the UK’s own North Sea gas is cheaper than imported LNG, and we estimate this saved the UK £2.5bn in 2025 alone,” he said. “With the increase in global LNG prices due to the Persian Gulf conflict, we expect that amount will be substantially higher in 2026.”

The North Sea is still the UK’s biggest gas source, accounting for around 45pc of its supplies. The other 35pc comes from piped gas from Norway, while 20pc is LNG imports.

According to Stifel, this imported LNG has been, on average, 18p per therm more expensive than North Sea gas over the past few years, with this gap helping Britain save about £2.5bn in 2025.

“To minimise the cost of energy for the UK, the UK needs to maximise its own gas production,” Mr Wheaton added.....

Stifel urged the Energy Secretary to reform the windfall tax on oil and gas producers, which it said was “taxing the UK’s own gas production to destruction”.

Mr Wheaton said this was “a decision which makes no sense to us whatsoever, as it increases the amount of expensive LNG imports”.

Offshore Energies UK has predicted the so-called Energy Profits Levy will see UK oil and gas output plunge by 40pc by the end of the decade.

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